Katie and Amanda's Newsiest Adventure
by ShortAtntionSpaz
Summary: What happens when one slightly crazy girl, and one very crazy girl, magically go back in time and meet the newsies?
1. Hey look! It's Bumlets!

Amanda sang loudly to herself as she got ready to leave the house. Who cares anyway, there was no one around to hear her belt out the words to the current song stuck in her head, "King of New York." She was dancing and singing to the music in her head as she gathered the rest of her stuff to put in her backpack for her big camping trip with a two of her friends, Katie and Marium. Just then, the phone rang. After scrambling around for a few seconds, she finally found the cordless receiver.

"Hello?" Amanda asked.

"Hiyo!" Bubbled the voice on the other end of the phone.

"Hey Katie! How's life?"

"Okie day. What about you?" Katie asked.

"I am just peachy. Are you all packed up and ready to go yet?"

"Yeah. Chocolate and my game boy, along with enough batteries to last me a month of continuous play. The essentials of life."

"Wow, your weird." Amanda told her, laughing.

"Look who's talking, 'Miss I like to make things out of duct tape while being psychotically hyper!' I don't see how you could call anyone else weird"

"True, true. Oh yeah, Marium called, she says she's dying for food so we are supposed to meet her at that teriyaki restaurant across from Thriftway." Amanda explained

"Nyan! That's far for Katie to walk!" she whined playfully.

"How about I meet you halfway to your house then we can walk past my house and get my stuff on the way there, since we need to walk past my house anyways?" Amanda compromised.

"I suppose...." Katie agreed.

"All right, ya wanna leave in 10 minutes?" Asked Amanda.

"Sounds spiffy, see ya in awhile." Katie said happily.

"OK, bye then."

"Buh bye!"

***

Amanda pulled the door open to the teriyaki restaurant, and held it open for Katie before walking in herself. Katie had walked in almost all the way turned around, talking to Amanda, and almost ran into someone standing inside the restaurant. 

"Sorry, I didn't see you there." Katie told the person as they walked past them and out in to the street, barely looking at them, before turning back to Amanda to finish telling her a joke. Amanda had the weirdest expression on her face, like she was greatly confused. 

"Umm… Did we walk into the wrong restaurant or something? Either that, or they have remodeled recently… I think I like the old way better."

Katie turned around and her jaw dropped. Gone were the black and white checkered floor, and the Chinese decorations all over the wall. The floor was now a scuffed wooden floor, and the red vinyl booths were traded for round tables with ancient looking chairs around them. 

"They must have sealed off the loft." Katie said, pointing to the lowered ceiling.

"We must have walked into the wrong place. This is definitely not the same restaurant that I was in last week." Amanda said, turning around and opening the door.

Both girls gasped. The sidewalks and paved road were not there anymore! After walking out into the sunshine, they looked down at the street, now made of cobblestones. A man drove by, not in a car, but in a wagon, and a man walked by, staring at them. He was wearing a brown suit and bowler hat that looked like it belonged in a museum.

Both girls looked back at the restaurant they just exited, and after reading the name on the window, Amanda made a low sound that was very much like a wounded animal, that would have been quite funny if they were in a different situation. 

"Tibby's!" Amanda exclaimed, anxiously smacking Katie on the arm.

"Owwie!" she moaned back. "Katies fragile!."

"Katie, Tibby's! There has never been a Tibby's in our neighborhood. Look around, does this look familiar to you at all?"

"No…" she responded slowly, "Where have I heard the name Tibby's?" Katie said, brushing her hair out of her face. "Lookie, that building says "The World Newspaper, like in Newsies." She said as she finally realized what Amanda was trying to get her to understand. 

As if on cue, they both heard over the crowd, "Extra, extra, trial for known burglar set for Thursday."

They turned toward the voice to see a young man in a blue shirt, white hat, and carrying a walking stick.

Turning towards each other, Amanda and Katie shook each other's shoulders screaming excitedly.

The young man stopped talking mid-sentence as he turned around and saw them.

"How…?" Amanda asked anxiously as he started walking towards them, with a confused look on his face. "Lookie, lookie, Bumlets! He even has his walking stick!" Katie whispered excitedly.

"Are you girls in trouble?" He asked, "I heard ya screamin'."

As Katie opened her mouth the exclaim something stupid, Amanda elbowed her in the arm to silence her and answered "No. No trouble. Not unless you count being lost. By the way, where are we anyways?"

Bumlets gave her a weird look, "You'se in Manhattan. Yer not from around here, are ya?" he asked.

"Nope." Katie commented.

"We are on an adventure!" Amanda added.

"Runaways then, huh?"

"Sure, why not?" Amanda piped up.

Bumlets looked at their backpacks and asked "Do you gots a place ta stay or anything?"

"Nah, we haven't figured that part out yet… Ya got any ideas?" Asked Katie.

Bumlets scratched his head in thought before answering, "Well, we can ask Kloppman, I don't know if he would let you stay or not…."

"But he can't turn us away!" Katie objected.

"Yeah! We're too cute!" Amanda added enthusiastically.

"Okay…" Bumlets said, "but I gots ta finish sellin' me papes."

"Ooo! Ooo! I wanna help!" Amanda offered jumping up and down excitedly.

"Me too!" Katie added clapping happily.

"I guess ya could help," Bumlets replied a little taken back by their enthusiasm, "D'ya know how?"

"Over exaggerate and generally lie through your teeth?" Amanda questioned.

Bumlets laughed, "Have you'se ever done 'dis before?"

"No," Amanda replied, "but I've seen it done before!"

Katie nodded in agreement.

Bumlets split the his stack in thirds and handed them each a third. "Between da t'ree of us, we should be done in no time!" He grinned, "M'names Bumlets by da way, what do dey call you?"

"I'm Amanda, and this is Katie." Amanda answered, pointing to Katie.

"Nice to meecha." Bumlets commented, spitting into the palm of his hand and holding it out.

Katie immediately scrunched up her face and mumbled, "eww, eww… I'm sorry, but, that's disgusting! Not to mention unsanitary."

Amanda spit in her own hand without hesitating and shook his hand. "Nice to meet you too!"

Bumlets face broke into a grin. "Wait 'till the guys hear about you!" he said with a laugh. "I aint nevah met a girl dat would spitshake, dey mostly think more like Katie does."

"I can see why, ewww, ewwww!" Katie commented, reinforcing her previous opinion.

They walked farther out to the street. Bumlets was right, it didn't take them long at all to sell the remaining papers before they headed to the lodging house.

***

"Kloppman!" Bumlets called out as they walked through the door to the lodging house.

Mr. Kloppman walked out from the back room and was surprised to see Katie and Amanda, standing there, wearing pants. *_Girls aren't supposed to wear pants!* _He though to himself. *_And the rest of their clothes are strange too… Wonder where they're from_.*

"I found dese two when I was out sellin' They'se runaways wid nowhere to stay. I know dat we aint gots no girls here, but can they get a bunk?"

After thinking about it for a minute, he answered "I don't see why not, as long as they are appropriate. They also have to learn how to be newsies."

"Dey's naturals, I had papes left to sell before we came on over here, an' they helped me out."

"Do either of you girls have five cents each for the first weeks stay?" Kloppman asked them.

Amanda dug through her deep pockets to find her change purse. Upon opening it, she did a double take. Her change no longer consisted of shiny new coins. Holding one up to look at it, she noticed the date stamped on it: 1894. Nudging Katie, she showed her the nickel, and Katie quickly pulled out her own nickel from her pocket in amazement. They both dropped their money into Kloppman's outstretched hand.

"Bumlets, why don't you take them upstairs and show them around."

Bumlets motioned towards the stairs with his head, and led the way up the stairs.

When they walked into the room, Bumlets tossed his walking stick onto his bunk, "Dere's empty bunks, heah, heah, heah, and ovah dere too, but the only ones togethah are these two next ta mine." He said, motioning to the bunks in the corner. 

"Ohh, I want the top, I never have had the top before." Amanda said, putting her bag on the floor. She un-hooked her sleeping bag from it, and tossed it up on the top bunk before climbing up after it.

"Okay." Katie said with a shrug before starting to unpack her own bag.

Before they were finished unpacking, Kid Blink and Mush walked into the bunkroom. They both stopped suddenly upon seeing Amanda and Katie. They just looked at each other before turning right around and walking back out and running down the stairs.

"Kloppman!" Mush called out with fluster. "Dere's girls up dere!"

Kid Blink nodded in disbelief. "Dat aint supposed ta happen!"

"Why not, they paid for their bunks." Kloppman reasoned.

"What?!?!?!?!" They both questioned in unison.

"What's da fuss about?" asked Jack, walking into the room.

Whipping around to face Jack, Mush exclaims "Dere's girls up dere!" motioning to the stairs.

"An dey's paid for der bunks!" added Kid Blink.

Meanwhile, upstairs, Katie and Amanda stared at the door and blinked in surprise.

"Oh, dat's just Mush and Blink. Well, Kid Blink, Blink for short. Dey'll be back up in just a minute. I can hear dem now." Bumlets said, referring to the sound of people coming up the stairs.

Blink, Mush and Jack burst into the room, with Jack in the lead.

"What are you girls doin' heah?" Jack demanded.

"What are you doing here?" Amanda demanded back.

"I live heah!" he quipped.

"Well, so do we." She said back.

"Why?" Jack wanted to know.

"Well, why not?" Amanda asked him.

Taken aback, Jack didn't know quite what to say, so he just shook his head before storming off to his bunk.

Mush and Blink were left standing in the middle of the floor, not knowing what to do.

"Hiyo!" Katie called out, waving to them.

"…Hi…" said Blink uncertainly. "How's it rollin?"

"Okie day." Katie responded, and was met with matching looks of confusion from the both of them.

"Hey." Amanda greeted.

"Eh, I can understand dat!" Exclaimed Mush.

It didn't take too long for the other Newsies to come filing in, with a response much the same as Jack's. It took awhile for everything to settle down, and by that time, it was about time to go to bed.

Both Amanda and Katie started freaking out when the boys began changing their clothes for bed. They covered their eyes with their hands then the both of them stood up, facing the wall to talk without looking out into the room.

"Maybe we can hang a curtain or something." Resoned Katie.

"Ohh, wait, we have a tent!" Amanda remembered.

"Can we turn around yet?" Katie asked loudly to the rest of the room.

"Umm….. yeah." Bumlets told them.

"Can we move this bunk over a bit?" Katie asked him after turning around. "We need more room next to the wall for something."

"I guess so… why?" Bumlets questioned as the two girls started pushing it over farther from the wall. Bumlets grabbed another corner of the bunk and helped them move it. 

Katie opened her backpack and pulled a bag out of it. Bumlets watched in amazement as Amanda and Katie started putting up the small two man dome tent.

The girls pulled their bags of clothes into the tent then went in, zipping the door shut behind them so that they could change their clothes. They came out, wearing their pajamas and bearing their favorite stuffed animals: Katie with her dragon, Draggie, and Amanda with her frog, Herbert.

They both climbed into their beds and snuggled into their sleeping bags just in time; as Kloppman came up to turn off the lights right after.

Upon listening in the dark, Amanda could only hear soft breathing, and someone across the room, snoring. She leaned her head over the side of the bunk and whispered, "Katie are you still awake?"

"Yeah." She whispered back.

"I don't think I have ever slept in the same room with a bunch of guys before… this is weird."

"Not as weird as where and when we are!" Katie quietly snickered.

"How did we manage to get from the teriyaki place in our neighborhood to New York. And how did we manage to go back in time?" Amanda questioned.

"I dunno, but how cool is it that we met Bumlets! Bumlets, Bumlets, Bumlets!"

"He he he," giggled Amanda before suppressing a yawn. "I guess we better go to sleep, I know we will have to wake up early to 'Carry 'da Banner.' I know how cranky you get without enough sleep."

"Hey! I resent that!" Katie disagreed.

"It's true!" Defended Amanda, "Go to sleep."

"All right, all right."

***

"Auggggghhhhhh!!!!" Amanda screamed as she fell out of bed in the middle of the night. "Owwwwww!"

she said after she landed.

Katie sat up straight from a deep sleep "What was that?" she asked the room.

"That was Amanda. Amanda has never slept in a bunk bed before." Amanda told her.

"Meh. I won't fall off, ya wanna trade?" Katie offered, groggily sitting up and grabbing her pillow, getting ready to settle into another bed.

"You are SO my hero. Just let me make sure that I can still move... I think I will survive." Amanda said sitting up.

Katie had climbed up onto the top bunk and threw Amanda's pillow at her from above.

"Thanks." Amanda commented through a yawn, while climbing into her new bunk, still halfway encased in her sleeping bag.

***

They were abruptly awaken the next morning by Kloppman yelling for everyone to wake up.

"Boots! Wake up boys! it's time to carry the banner! Skittery! Sell the papes! Sell the papes! The ink is wet, the presses are rolling!!! Mush! "

"Amanda?" Katie called out from the top bunk.

"What?" she replied in question.

"I just wanted to make sure you were still here with me." she explained, with her voice muffled by the pillow she was burying her face in.

Amanda sat up, "Huh, what did you say, Katie?" she waited for an answer, and she didn't get one so she stood up and hit Katie on the head with Herbert, her frog.

Katie's head snapped up, "Wha- oh, g'morning." she groggily said to Amanda

"I thought you had the top...." Bumlets commented to Amanda.

"I did, but falling off in the middle of the night changed my opinion that it was so great to have the top." She explained.

With a laugh, Mush walked by, "Dat girl's harder to wake up than Jack!" he said pointing to Katie.

With an evil grin, Amanda walked over to the row of sinks in the washroom. Grabbing an unused washrag, she dropped it into a sink that was filling with water. After turning the water faucet off, she rang the extra water out of the cold rag, and crept over to Katie's bunk. Using the bunk under her as a step, she flung the sopping rag onto Katie's face, and ran across the room, before dropping to the floor, giggling hysterically. 

Dutchy opened his eyes at the sound of laughing. one of those new strange girls was sitting in the floor, right next to his bunk, laughing. That's when he heard the other girl scream.

"Amanda!!! I will get you for this!" Katie promised, yelling across the room

Amanda... that's what her name was... Dutchy thought to himself. 

Amanda scrunched herself down lower, so Katie couldn't see her, and finally stopped giggling.

She caught Dutchy looking right at her, so she grinned and waved. "Good morning!" She said cheerfully.

Dutchy smiled at her, shaking his head. "Dat's the first time in my life I have ever been woken up by someone sittin' on the floor next to my bed, laughing."

Amanda sheepishly smacked herself in the forehead before answering "I'm sorry, I shoulda been quieter."

"No, it's ok, I'd rather be woken up by the sound of laughter than being shaken awake and yelled at, which would have happened in a minute or two if you hadn't woken me up. Kloppman's still making his rounds around the room." he explained with a smile.

"Well , I gotta go get dressed, I will talk to you later, Dutchy." she told him as she jumped up from the floor and walked back over to her bunk.

Dutchy grinned as he threw back his covers. ~That girl is something else.....~ he thought to himself, getting up to get ready.


	2. Intellagence rivaled soley by garden too...

A/N- I have gotten comments that the way Amanda and Katie talk sound really weird. Just to let you know, Amanda and Katie are really weird., and that is how we talk. Amanda is myself, and Katie is my buddy, and fellow Newsies freak. Katie really talks like that, but it's not actually annoying when she says it, really. I have also been asked how old Amanda and Katie are. I am 20. Katie is 16. As of right now, no casting call, but I tend to be slightly fickle, and change my mind on things, so someday, maybe.  
  
Back to the zaniness! Spontaneity rules!  
  
"Nope." Amanda told Sarah. "I just don't do dresses."  
  
"A woman's proper attire is a dress or a skirt." Sarah informed her.  
  
"Hmmmm, let me think about it..... No." Amanda said, shaking her head determinedly.  
  
"I agree with her." Katie nodded, pointing at Amanda.  
  
Sighing, Sarah dropped the skirt she was holding back into the trunk she pulled it from. She looked around the small seamstress' shop where she worked, and smiled and shook her head at Bumlets. "I tried." she told him.  
  
"It wasn't my idea anyway. Jack thought they should be able to blend into the crowd better. He should be around soon to check on them."  
  
As if on cue, they heard the jingle of the bell that was hung on the top of the door.  
  
"How's my girl?" Jack asked Sarah, giving her a quick hug, and a kiss on the cheek.  
  
"They wouldn't go for it. I can't get them to even try on anything." Sarah told him.  
  
"You will be safer on the streets in a dress!" Jack informed them.  
  
"Why, so someone steps on the hem, and I can't run away." Katie asked innocently.  
  
"Or so I can trip over my own feet, trying to walk, and fall down and hit my head, knocking me unconscious?" Suggested Amanda.  
  
"Or the ash from someone's yucky cigarette lands on it, and I go up in flames" Added Katie. "Cigarettes are very gross, and they are bad for you, and the people around you." Katie informed Bumlets and Jack, who just looked at her with a bewildered expression.  
  
"Yup." Nodded Amanda. "So, why again would you say we would we be safer in a dress?"  
  
"You are less likely to be accosted by strangers." Sarah told them.  
  
Katie whispered in Amanda's ear, "What does accosted mean?"  
  
"Bothered.... um, like if someone stopped us on the street." Amanda whispered her explanation.  
  
"Oh, I knew that." Katie giggled.  
  
"But why? Won't people avoid us if we are different?" Amanda asked Jack.  
  
"Plus, you already made us promise not to go off alone. How are we going to be accosted if we are with other newsies?" Katie pointed out.  
  
defeated, Jack threw his hands up in the air, and told them, "You win, unless something happens to change my mind." before putting his arm around Sarah and telling her, "I'll be back with the noon meal"  
  
She just grinned, her eyes shining.  
  
"You guys go ahead, I'll be along soon." Jack told Bumlets.   
  
"Alright, lets go girls." Bumlets told Amanda and Katie before he opened the door for them to exit the shop.   
  
They all walked out, and as Bumlets held the door handle to make sure the door didn't slam, he looked back through the glass panel in the door, to see Jack and Sarah, in a passionate kiss. Shaking his head, he  
  
turned and smiled at the 2 girls in front of him. "Ready to get going?"  
  
Dutchy called out the headlines with a huge stack of papes sitting next to him on a large crate.   
  
"Dutchy!" a voice called out from across the street, and down a ways.  
  
Dutchy whirled around, and grinned at Bumlets, Katie, and Amanda. He couldn't tell which of the girls called out his name, but whichever one it was, has a set of lungs, there was no way Bumlets could have called out and gotten his attention with his quiet voice.  
  
Amanda happily waved at him, grinning. "How's it rollin'?" She called out as they started walking towards him.  
  
~ So it's Amanda that has the loud voice.~ Dutchy thought to himself. "No luck at Sarah's?" Dutchy asked them as they walked up to him, since they were still wearing their clothes they left the lodging house in this morning. Katie wore pretty much the same thing she had the day before, her blue pants she called jeans, and a red thick long sleeved shirt, with a hood, and a funny pocket on the front., even though it was hot out. Amanda's attire was a bit more drastic. First of all, her pants were wider at the bottom than the top. Her shirt not only was cut off to have shortened sleeves, it had this funny painted on deisgn on the front of it, with these four men, and it said "The Beatles". She also, oddly enough, was wearing jewelry made from chains, and metal pieces attached to leather. She also had a chain looped around her belt lop, and the other end went in her back pocket. Such odd adornment, and not at all ladylike.  
  
Amanda and Katie shook their heads, and Bumlets chuckled. "They wouldn't go for it." he told Dutchy.  
  
"I don't blame them." Dutchy said to Bumlets, "I hate wearing dresses too." he said seriously, before a smile crept in at the corners of his mouth.  
  
All four of them erupted in laughter.  
  
"Oh yeah, here's yer papes." Dutchy said to Bumlets, motioning to the large stack behind him on a crate.  
  
"Um, why does Bumlets need that many papers?" Katie asked, eying the very large stack.  
  
"They aren't all his." Dutchy explained. "Jack told me to get him his usual 100, Bumlets 80, and the each of you girls 50, plus, my own. Skittery had to help me carry them all."  
  
"So we get to go sell, even if we are not wearing dresses?" Katie asked, excited.  
  
"I guess so, since Jack gave his permission for you to wear those clothes." Answered Bumlets.   
  
"Good, because I still wouldn't wear a dress." Amanda grinned.  
  
Dutchy divided the papers, and by the time he had finished passing them all out, Jack had come over from across the street.  
  
After picking up his papers, he informed Amanda and Katie, "You'se gonna sell wid me today, since I just happen to be the best there is, I can teach you a bit about sellin." He informed them with a cocky nod of his head.  
  
"Okie day." Katie shrugged.  
  
"What?" asked Jack, confused.  
  
"Okie day." She repeated.  
  
"And that means what?" Jack wondered aloud.  
  
"Of course. Okie day. OK. Okaly dokaly. Ya get it now?" Katie asked.  
  
"Uh, I think so." Jack said uncertainly, looking at Amanda for help.  
  
"She means alright." Amanda grinned. "Oh, and by the way, 'nyan' means so-so, and 'meh' means not so good." @KATIE, know of any other words that need defining?@  
  
"Why does she speak another language, where is she from?" Dutchy whispered to Amanda.  
  
"No one really knows for sure." Amanda responded, giggling.  
  
"Are you laughing at me?" Katie demanded.  
  
"Yes!" Amanda declared happily, pointing at her.  
  
"You better watch it!" Katie stated threateningly.  
  
Jack, Dutchy, and Bumlets looked at each other, not sure if they were to expected the strange girls to start fighting or not.  
  
"Or what?" Amanda asked, before sticking her tongue out at Katie and blowing raspberries at her, while sticking her thumbs in her ears, and wiggling her fingers at her.  
  
"That's it!" Katie announced as she rushed at Amanda, and before any of the guys could stop her, she was tickling Amanda in the stomach, who was laughing hysterically, and soon fell over, flailing on the ground.  
  
Bumlets grabbed Katie, pinning her arms to her sides, and pulled her back, while Dutchy helped Amanda to her feet.  
  
Still gasping for breath, Amanda collapsed into the side of the building behind them.  
  
"That's for waking me up the way you did!" Katie said mockingly, as Bumlets let go of her.  
  
"This isn't over!" Amanda said mischievously.  
  
"Yes, it is." Jack declared, interrupting them.  
  
"No it's not!" both girls said in unison, laughing.  
  
"I don't wanna hear you fighting all day." Jack informed them.  
  
Giggling, Amanda said, "Ok, then you don't have to hear us fighting." before she waved at Katie to get her attention, and started using sign language. *I will get you later*  
  
Katie responded with more sign language *I don't think so.*  
  
The three guys all looked at them like they were crazy.  
  
Grinning, Amanda looked at them and stated, signing, and voicing, "We have a friend that is deaf, and we use sign language all the time. It's fun."  
  
Katie signed to Amanda, *They think we are crazy.*  
  
*That's because we are.* Amanda declared.  
  
"Why was she pointing at us? What is she saying?" Bumlets demanded.  
  
"I'm not gonna tell you!" Amanda said in a singsong voice.   
  
"What are you teasing ME for, I helped you out when she attacked you!" Bumlets pleaded.  
  
"Calm down, Bumlets, we weren't saying anything bad about you!." Katie told him, patting him on the shoulder.  
  
"She wouldn't ever hurt me anyway, for one thing, she's not strong enough." Amanda said.  
  
"And you think you're pretty strong?" Jack asked, "Then why did you fall down when she touched you?"  
  
"Because I am very ticklish. And for a girl, yes, I am pretty strong." She defended.   
  
"Why, are you a fighter or something?" Jack wanted to know.  
  
"I have never been in a fight in my life, but I can punch hard."  
  
"You don't look very strong, I bet you can't hit as hard as you think you can." Jack snorted.  
  
"I am not saying I am stronger than you are, or anything, but I am most certainly stronger than Katie is." Amanda retorted defensively.  
  
"She is, she is!" Katie confirmed with a fierce nod.  
  
"Prove it." Jack said, patting his arm, and motioning for her to hit him.  
  
"You honestly want me to hit you, as hard as I can, in the arm." Amanda asked.  
  
"You can't hurt me." He stated.  
  
"Alright, but only because you told me to do it." Amanda agreed reluctantly.  
  
She took a deep breath, took aim, and punched him as hard as she could in the arm.  
  
His eyes grew as big as saucers as his whole body tensed up, and he reached up, gingerly touching his arm, right where she hit him. He tried not to call out, but after a few seconds of a delayed reaction, he yelped, "Ow, ow, grrrrrr" he growled, still trying not to yell.  
  
Dutchy and Bumlets were as surprised as Jack, and were standing there in amazement, Dutchy even had his mouth hanging open.  
  
"So, Jack, do ya think you can still carry all hundred of your papes now?" Amanda asked sweetly.  
  
"I think we better give him some time to recover." Katie grinned at Jack.  
  
"Still rubbing his sore arm, he grudgingly admitted, "You were right, I aint never seen no girl with a swing like that one."  
  
"And just to let you know.... that will happen again, if you lie to me, and I find out about it. I'm not talkin about lying about the headlines, that's part of the job, but personally, if you lie to me, I get really mad" Amanda informed him.  
  
"I got it, I got it. That hurt!" Jack admitted. "Are you girls ready to learn how to sell now?"  
  
"I suppose so, as long as you have recovered enough" Katie teased.  
  
Jack didn't verbally respond, but he did flash her a look that said to knock it off.  
  
Giggling, Katie and Amanda picked up their papers.  
  
"I guess I'll see you guys later." Amanda said, flashing Dutchy and Bumlets a grin.  
  
"Yeah, later." Katie added while Jack picked up his papes, and started walking down the street, leaving behind Dutchy and Bumlets to stand there in amazement over the interesting 2 minutes they had just spent with them.  
  
Looking through the paper, Katie commented to Amanda, "Look, a lady was mugged, right in front of the Bank of Manhattan. The thief got away with her purse, which contained some petty cash, and her favorite fountain pen, among other things." she said giggling.  
  
"What's so funny?" Amanda asked puzzled.  
  
"This one can be about the bank robber that stole all the money at the bank." she whispered to Amanda before raising her voice for Jack to hear, "Jack, is this a good selling spot?"  
  
Looking around, he said, "It's not too bad, lets try here, and if it doesn't work, then we can find another one."   
  
"Sounds good to me." Katie nodded  
  
"First thing ya gotta learn, is these headlines don't exactly sell da papes most of the time, so you gots to improve them a bit. Like, see here, it says the mayor's wife slipped and broke her wrist getting out of the family carriage."  
  
"And I am guessing that is not quite exciting enough to sell the papes?" Asked Amanda..  
  
After nodding at them, Jack help up a paper, and shouted into the small crowd, "Mayor's wife, the victim of a terrible carriage accident."  
  
"How much?" asked a passerby.  
  
"One cent." Answered Jack as he pulled a paper from the stack, and held it out to the man, who took it, and placed a penny in his hand. Another man was ready to buy a paper when that man walked on, and a few more after that.  
  
When his customers left, he turned back to the girls, and said, "See, it sells better that way."  
  
"Can I try?" Katie asked innocently.  
  
"Go right ahead." Jack encouraged.  
  
After grinning at Amanda, Katie stepped out into the small crowd, and called out, "Bank robber hits the Bank of Manhattan! The latest news about the robbery at Manhattan bank, for a mere cent!"  
  
"Hey! that's my bank!" shouted a man in a tan suit with a walking cane, who hurried over to buy a copy.  
  
It seemed like everyone that was in sight, had money in the Bank of Manhattan, and was concerned enough to buy a paper, so it didn't take very long for Katie to get rid of almost a third of her papers.  
  
"Are you sure you haven't done this before?" Jack asked her  
  
"Only when we helped Bumlets finish selling yesterday." Katie told him.  
  
Even with her good headline improving skills, Jack still sold out faster than Katie did, but not by much. Amanda had a bit more trouble than Katie did, partly because people were avoiding her. There were people that would walk across the street, instead of walking past her, and then cross back over. Because of this, Jack and Katie stood across the street from her, that a way, almost everyone walked past them, and they sold their papes pretty quickly. When there were lulls in business, and the crowd thinned down, Katie and Amanda signed to each other from across the street. for some reason, this annoyed Jack, a lot.  
  
"Will you guys stop that?" Jack demanded for the umpteenth time.   
  
"This isn't hurting you, is it, Jack?" asked Katie  
  
Puzzled, Jack responded, "How in the world could that hurt me?"   
  
"If it doesn't hurt you, then it's ok to keep doing it." Katie informed him before turning back to Amanda   
  
*Amanda, Jack doesn't like us signing, he keeps telling me I need to stop.* Katie informed her.  
  
they both laughed, and Amanda signed back * Whatever, he'll live, it's ok.*  
  
Seeing them look at him, and laugh, Jack started grinding his teeth. ~They's aint like any other girls I've ever met, they don't listen, and do just what I tell them, they aint got no respect..~ Jack though to himself.  
  
When they had sold all of thir papers, (Katie and Jack had to help Amanda) they headed over to Tibby's to get something to calm their grumbling tummies. They were walking in silence down the street, when Amanda felt someone brush up against her, pulling her wallet from her back pocket. He didn't get very far, before he realized that it was attached to a chain that was attached to her belt loop. The pull from the chain, actually caused him to stumble, and he fell, dropping the wallet, that just swung back, and hit Amanda's leg.  
  
"Fingers!" Jack snarled at him, as Amanda put her wallet back in her pocket. "What do you think you are doing? What is our agreement?"  
  
With a look of surprise, still sitting on the ground, he said, "I don't sneak from 'Hattan newsies, and 'Hattan newsies don't soak me, but dey's can't be 'Hattan newsies, I aint nevah seen dem before"  
  
"I told you that you had to keep tabs on who was who, it's not my job to tell you, since you don't announce your presence around me."  
  
"I'se sorry Jack, it won't happen again!" he said, scurrying to his feet, and disappearing around the corner.  
  
"What was that about?" Amanda asked Jack.  
  
"Fingers is just one of the many pickpockets and scroungers that us newsies don't care for." Jack answered. "But he's no trouble, he won't even pick on Les anymore, he's too scared of us." he said as he opened the door to Tibby's and held it for them.  
  
As thgey walked in to the restaurant, they noticed that it was already about half full, with most of the crowd newsies.  
  
Calling out a greeting to the waiter, Jack asked the girls what they wanted to eat, and they boith shrugged, so he told the waiter, "Three specials." Before leading the way over to the table that Mush, Racetrack, Skittery, and Kid Blink were sitting at, and motioned for them to sit down. After thay had all gotten settled, Jack told the rest of the guys about their encounter with Fingers.  
  
"So now I understand why you have the chain, at your waist, but what's the purpose of the chains around your neck?" Asked Blink, who had been pondering that ever since he saw her with them on.  
  
"Where we come from, different people wear different styles of clothing, and jewelry, and it has nothing to do with the amount of money you wear. Some people dress like Katie does, some dress like me, well, in this style, I should say, but alot of them wear very different clothes." She tried to explain.  
  
"How different?" Jack asked.  
  
"First of all, a lot of young men wear shirts that would fit 2 normal men, and pants that are way bigger than even mine, and they fall down, and show their underpants, because the waist comes down to here." Amanda stood so she could motion about 8 inches below her own waist. "Then they have to walk like this, and waddle, with their feet apart really far, so their pants don't fall down to their ankles." She said, demonstrating. "Usually, they have their shoelaces untied, with the ends tucked in. Then their shoes are so loose, that they shuffle around like this." She said, showing them. "Then, you put it all together, and they walk like this." She said, strutting, shuffling, and holding up her pants.   
  
When they saw this, all five of the guys burst out laughing.   
  
"Why do they do that?" Jack asked , almost gasping for breath from laughing so hard, as Amanda sat back down  
  
Katie giggled, "That's the funny part, they think they look good! Some girls do that too, but not many."  
  
"Don't all the girls around there wear dresses?" Skittery asked, puzzled.  
  
"Most girls wear pants, and shirts that are so short that they show their bare stomach." Katie explained.  
  
Racetrack almost choked on the sip of water he just took, and started coughing. The rest of the guys jaws were dropped.  
  
"Breathe in your nose, and out of your mouth.," Amanda advised Racetrack. "It helps you stop coughing when something goes down the wrong tube."  
  
"Girls show bare skin on their stomachs?" Mush asked, appalled.  
  
"Yeah, and sometimes they wear skirts that come up way higher than their knees too." Amanda told them  
  
"I sleep in more clothes than some girls wear during the day." Katie told them.  
  
"Where are you from, anyway?" asked Racetrack.  
  
Amanda and Katie just looked at each other, trying to figure out what to tell them, since they very well couldn't say Seattle, since that was an actual city.... and their Seattle is a far cry from the Seattle that these boys have probably heard of.   
  
"Ummm, it's called SeaTac." Said Katie, just hoping that they had never heard of it.  
  
They received puzzled looks from everyone at the table.  
  
Breathing a sigh of relief, Amanda explained, "It's west from here."  
  
"Never heard of it" answered Race.  
  
"Me neither." confirmed Skittery as their waiter came over with a tray of food for them.  
  
"That was good!" exclaimed Katie as she put down her fork, after eating her last bite.  
  
"Yeah it was." Amanda agreed   
  
"Now we have to go back for the afternoon edition." Racetrack said, slumping in his seat.  
  
"I suggest that you take off a few of your necklaces and stuff, Amanda" Katie told her, "You will prolly have better luck in not scaring people." she giggled.  
  
"That's probably true." Amanda nodded, unhooking her necklaces, and piling them on the table, then she pulled off her brightly colored beaded bracelets, that went a third of a way to her elbow, and put them with the necklaces, and removed all her rings, except for one, and added them to the pile. "I never go without wearing this ring" She explained, holding up her pointer finger on her right hand, which had the ring on it.  
  
"That's a big pile of jewelry for one person." Racetrack commented as Amanda started shoving it in her pockets.  
  
"Ok, now stand up, and let us see the difference." Blink instructed.  
  
Amanda stood up and backed away from the table so that they could see the full effect, and asked, "what do you think?"  
  
"That shirt sticks out too much, what are 'The Beatles' anyway?" Blink asked reading her shirt.  
  
"They play music." Amanda answered. "Should I go back to the lodging house and get a different one? But I don't think the others I have are improvements, I think I might just have printed t-shirts."  
  
Kid Blink looked at Amanda standing there, thinking. Without saying anything, Blink unbuttoned his shirt, and pulled it off, so he was just wearing an undershirt. Handing it to her, he sad, "Wear this over your shirt, then you should be fine."  
  
"Are you sure, are you alright with just wearing that shirt?" Amanda asked, still holding the shirt in her hands.  
  
"Go ahead, it's alright." Blink reassured her, and she shrugged her shoulders before putting it on, and buttoning it up.  
  
"Now that's a lot better!" Race commented when she buttoned the last button.  
  
"Should we get going, we still gots some sellin to do." reminded Mush.  
  
"Yeah, lets go." Skittery suggested, as the rest of them stood, and put the money for their meals on the table, before filing out into the sun.  
  
"Since most of the people that buy the papers in the morning, don't bother to buy them in the afternoon, you can't sell nearly as much, unless there is a new cover story that's really big." advised Jack as they walked back towards the same distribution center that Dutchy bought their papers from that morning.  
  
They walked up to the counter as Snipeshooter and Itey were picking their stacks up from where Morris had just set them down.  
  
"Hiya boys" Jack greeted them.   
  
"Hi Jack" they chorused as they walked past him on their way back out onto the street.  
  
"Hey,. Weas, dese two are our newest addition to the group, Amanda and Katie, girls, this is Weasel" he told them.  
  
"Hiya Mr. Weasel" echoed Katie and Amanda, grinning.  
  
"Actually, the name's Wiesel." he corrected.  
  
"That's just what we said... Weasel." said Amanda innocently.  
  
Looking at her funny, he said it again, more slowly. "W..ie..s..el"  
  
Her eyes brightening mischievously, Amanda mimicked the way he spoke, "W..ea..s..el"  
  
The grins the newsies were trying to suppress, now burst out as full blown laughs.  
  
"What are you, stupid or somethin?" Morris asked her.  
  
Amanda looked at Katie with a gasp. "He insults my intelligence in front of me."  
  
"Tsk, tsk, tsk, his intellagence is rivaled soley by garden tools.  
  
"You think you's smarter than me, girl?" He asked haughtily.  
  
"Hmmm, let me think about that for a minute...... indubitably." Amanda answered.  
  
"I agree." said Katie.  
  
"Ask me anything, I bet I know more about the topic 'den you'se girls put together."  
  
"What do we get when we beat you?" Asked Katie.  
  
After thinking about it for a few seconds, he responded, "I'll buy both your papers for 2 weeks, and if I win, since yer girls, ya gots ta do my laundry for 2 weeks."  
  
"You're on" Katie confirmed.  
  
Without missing a beat, Amanda challenged, "What are your views on antidisestablishmentarianism?"  
  
"That's a good one." Katie said, putting her hand out to give Amanda a high five.  
  
Blinking his eyes, Morris asked "Say that again?"  
  
"Are you for, or against antidisestablishmentarianism?" Katie asked  
  
"I...ah....um....How many papes would you like today?" he asked, looking down at the counter.  
  
"Wow, someone's discombobulated." Katie commented, and was met with a look of great confusion..  
  
Leaning on the counter, she asked him, "So how many papes does Jack usually get at this time of day?"  
  
Feeling flustered, Morris answered, "... 'bout 60, why?"  
  
"That's how many we each want." Amanda said, and Katie confirmed with a nod.  
  
Weasel smacked Morris upside the head, and told him, "I'll put it on yer tab, and you best be savin yer money from now on, cuz I aint payin for you to buy no girls as many papes as they can carry for 2 weeks."  
  
"Thank you!" Katie said brightly to Morris as he handed her the stacks of papers.  
  
"Have a nice day!" Amanda said, happily waving, grinning at him. The fact that he scowled at her didn't deminish her smile, but it in fact intensified. 


	3. I dunno, what do you wanna do?

A/N Heyyo everybody! 

Thank you Kennyon, for the wonderful (and only) review of chapter 2!  T'ree thumbs way to the side, back atcha!

Katie- I am "distapointed" in your lack of reviews for the 2nd chapter. If I get reviews, I write faster! :-D

CHEESE IS GOOD!

Amanda and Katie started to follow Jack as he walked out of the gates of the distribution center, but he stopped as he reached the sidewalk. He turned around to face them, "Who do you wanna sell wid now?" he asked the girls.

"We were doing so well with you before..." started Katie.

"I have to go..." he said, finishing his sentence with a mumble behind his hand.

Katie and Amanda looked at each other knowingly as Jack fidgeted with his papers.

"Trying to get rid of us?" Amanda asked Jack as Dutchy walked through the gates.

"Dutchy, Jack says I need an escort." She informed him.

With a grin, Dutchy responded, "Would you care to join me, miss?" offering his elbow.

After flashing Katie a smile, Amanda linked her arm in Dutchy's and responded, "Thank you, kind sir! You're my hero!"

Katie watched them walk off into the distance, "BLARG!!!"

Bumlets walked out the gates just in time to hear Katie's interesting exclamation.

After following her gaze, he noticed that his selling partner just walked down the street with someone else. 

His cry of "He left me!" was almost drowned out by her cry of "She left me!"

They just looked at each other and laughed.

"You can sell wid' me..." Bumlets offered.

"Okie day!" Katie enthused. "Bye Jack, have fun (mumbles behind her hand) -ing"

Bumlets looked at Katie with confusion, but just shrugs, and follows her as she walks off.

"So where is it that we are going?" Bumlets asked Katie.

Looking around, Katie answered "I have no idea... what do you suggest?"

Grinning, Bumlets said, "There's a pretty good sellin' spot over this way." he motioned over to the left.

They stopped walking under a tree, and Bumlets pulled out the top paper from his stack.

"Lets see what we got here." Bumlets said, unfolding the paper.

Setting her stack down, Katie did the same thing. "See anything interesting?" she asked, flipping through the pages.

With a frown, Bumlets said, "Not too much. Wait, here's something!"

~~~

"Helpless citizen mauled by vicious canine!" Dutchy called out to the passerbies

"By what time are you usually finished selling?" Amanda asked him.

"Thank you sir." Dutchy told a customer before telling her, "Different times, sometimes it takes longer than others. If I have time before supper, I sometimes go to central park, and sit in the shade on the grass, or something."

"Cool." Amanda commented.

"Nah, it's not that cold, even in the shade, since it's still summer." Dutchy said.

"No, cool is an expression, like 'that's neat', or 'nice' she explained."

"Oh... I nevah heard that before." Dutchy commented, still slightly bewildered.

~~~

"That was the last one!" Bumlets told Katie in triumph, as he slipped the last penny into his pocket.

Holding out her hand, Katie exclaimed, "Gimmie five!"

Looking at her strangely, Bumlets pulled his hand out of his pocket, and dropped a nickel into her hand.

"No, no, no, no!" she said, handing the nickel back. "You put your hand up, like this." she instructed, pulling his hand up, and putting it in the right spot. Then she slapped the palm of his outstretched hand.

"That's a high five." she explained.

Still looking at her strangely, and still holding his hand up, he asked, "What's that for?"

Grinning, she answered, "It's like a handshake of greeting, or congratulations, but with no spit, ewwww. And you can put your hand down now."

His hand slowly went back down to his side, and he said, "Oh."

Katie asked him, "So what now?"

"I dunno, what do you want to do?" Bumlets answered.

"I dunno, what do you want to do?..."

~~~

"Ohhh, I can see a fish!" Amanda commented, pointing to an odd shaped cloud in the sky.

"I can see it too." Dutchy agreed.

They were lying in the grass, on the side of a slight hill in the park.

"It is so pretty here." Amanda said.

"I know, this is my favorite spot in the whole park, this hill is perfect for leaning on."

"It's comfortable" Amanda told him.

After hearing Dutchy's stomach rumble, Amanda asked, "Are you hungry, or something?" with a smile.

"Yeah, I suppose it's about supper time, ya wanna head over to Tibby's"

"Uh huh, my stomach is about to start growling too." Said Amanda.

~~~

"I dunno, what do you wanna do?"

"I dunno, what do you wanna do?"

Bumlets smiled, "Are you hungry?"

"I dunno, are you?"

"I suppose so, ya wanna go to Tibby's?"

"Sure!" Katie said, and started walking down the street.

"Wrong way, Katie." He laughed at her.

"I was gonna take the scenic route." She confirmed with a nod.

Since they didn't go very far that afternoon to find a selling spot, it only took them a few minutes before they were inside, and had found a table to sit at. Bumlets noticed that Katie seemed enthralled by the ceiling fan above their table.

"Whatcha lookin' at?" he asked her.

"I was just thinking how much fun it would be to spin on that fan." She said with a smile.

With a laugh, Bumlets told her, "It is fun, I've done it before."

"Ohh, ohhh, can I try?" she asked excitedly.

"Sure, Mr. Tibby doesn't care."

~~~

Dutchy held the door open for Amanda, and she walked in, and stopped, 3 feet from the door, staring across the restaurant.

There was Katie, hanging from the ceiling fan by her arms, trying with all her might, to touch her toes to the tabletop, to push herself off so she could spin, while Bumlets stood off to the side, clutching his stomach from laughing so hard.

"Uhh, Uhh, can't…. reach… BLARG! I'm too short!" she gasped with the effort of trying not to laugh while kicking her feet around, trying to gain momentum.

She failed, and fell to the tabletop laughing.

"I wanna try!" Amanda exclaimed, as Katie rolled off of the table.

"Go ahead" Bumlets encouraged.

"This I gotta see!" Dutchy said, pulling up a chair.

Using an empty chair as a step, Amanda stood on the table, and reached up, and grabbed the ceiling fan, kicked off, spinning quickly with a "WHEEEE!"

"Not fair!!!" Katie exclaimed, stamping her foot. "Just 'cause I'm short!"

Amanda continued spinning for a few moments before Dutchy asked her, "I thought you were hungry."

"Oh yeah!" Amanda agreed, letting go, and jumping off of the table to the floor. She laughed as she almost fell over, and Bumlets and Dutchy caught her, and held her arms until she steadied herself.

"Thank you!" She said with a laugh. "I got it now." She told them, and they let go of her arms. 

Still grinning, they all settled themselves at the table, and looked over at the menu posted on the wall. 

~~~

As soon as they got back to the still empty lodging house lodging house, Katie realized, "Amanda, I haven't played my game boy for a whole 2 days!"

"Then go for it, you brought enough batteries to last a normal person a few years… you, a month."

"YAY! Thank you, Costco! Red version, here I come!"

"What is she talking about?" Bumlets asked Amanda, with Dutchy looking at her for an explanation too.

"It's a toy type of thing… it's hard to explain, you'll see." She told them, shrugging her shoulders.

Katie continued to rummage through her bag until she pulled out her game boy, and sat on the lower bunk, which now was Amanda's.

"Die, Dragonite, DIE!!!" She yelled at the thing in her hands.

"What is she doing?!?!?!" Bumlets asked, concerned.

"It's a fighting game, you try to fight these little animals and capture them." She tried to explain.

Dutchy and Bumlets went over and leaned over Katie's shoulder to try and see the screen of her game boy, and their jaws dropped.

"How does that picture move?" Dutchy asked her.

"Have you ever seen a nickelodeon moving picture?" Katie asked them.

"No." Bumlets responded.

"Yeah, I did, this one time…. It was a whole bunch of pictures that when you put yer money in, and turned the crank, they flipped so fast that it seemed like the picture moved." Dutchy explained.

"Kinda like that…. I think." Katie responded.

Bumlets sat behind Katie on the bed so he could look over her shoulder, still amazed at the thing in her hands, and Dutchy sprawled out on the floor.

"All of a sudden, I am really tired!" he explained, after getting a weird look from Amanda, who was sitting on Katie's top bunk.

"You aren't allowed to be tired!" Amanda scolded mockingly.

"What? Why not" Dutchy asked.

"Because I said so!" Amanda told him, as she threw Katie's pillow at Dutchy's head.

His yell of surprise was muffled by the pillow as he scrambled to get up from the floor.

 Amanda jumped down, and grabbed her own pillow from her bed, and attacked him again, before he could get himself together.

"I'll get you for that!" he threatened.

"Sure you will." Amanda disagreed mockingly. 

They went for each other, and there was a flurry of white, as they hit each other over, and over. A stray pillow smacked Katie's shoulder, and she barely even flinched, she was so engrossed in her game.

Dutchy took a swing at Amanda, hitting her in the arm, and she pummeled him in the head, leaving him laughing, and trying to defend himself in between her merciless attacks. He fought back quite well for a while, but one blow straight to the head sent him off balance, and he fell backwards, landing on his bum on the floor.

Before he could get himself back up, Amanda smacked him in the head, and knocked him over, dropped the pillow on his stomach, and sat on the pillow. The surprise enabled her to yank his pillow out of his hands, leaving him defenseless. As she smacked him on the head, he yelled out, "Help!" 

Katie called out some simple advice, without looking up from the game boy, "Dutchy, tickle her!" she instructed.

"Noooo!" Amanda objected, trying to defend herself.

He reached out, and tickled her sides, and she immediately started screaming with laughter, and kicking and flailing around. She rolled over, and was no longer sitting on Dutchy, so he jumped up, still tickling her, and sat on her, pinning her to the ground.

"No… fair!" she struggled to call out in between breaths. "Can't… breathe!" she gasped, finally ending his tickling spree.

They heard someone running up the stairs, and everyone, except Katie, who was still entranced by her game, looked at the doorway..

David, followed by Les, came tearing into the room.

"What's wrong, what was that screaming for?" David demanded, looking around the room, his gaze stopping at the strange site of Dutchy sitting on Amanda.

"Watch this!" Dutchy told them, and started tickling Amanda again, who responded with more screaming.

David stood there, not knowing whether to be mad at them for making him worried, or laugh, because it was so funny. The latter soon won out though, and he grabbed the pillow off from the closest bunk, and tried to beat Dutchy off of Amanda, who was still shrieking.

Les, curious as to what Bumlets and Katie were doing, wandered over to sit next to Bumlets, behind Katie on the bed.

"Wow! What is that!" he asked her.

"Game boy." She responded, without looking away from the screen.

"Game boy?" Les asked.

"Yup" she responded.

"But… you're a girl!" Les informed her.

"So?" challenged Katie.

"But why don't you have a 'Game girl' then?"

Her eyes finally came unglued from the screen, as she looked over her shoulder at Les. "I have no idea."

"Can I try?" the little boy asked jumping up and down in excitement.

"Just a sec, let me switch games… this one is wayyy to hard for you to understand… at least not in this century…Lets try Zelda." She said, slipping the other game into it, and turning it on. "You are this guy." She said, pointing to the tiny character. "Those three hearts are your 'life' and if you get hurt, they hearts disappear one by one. You get to kill bad people with your sword."

"I get a sword!!! YAY!" Les exclaimed.

"The different buttons do different things, here, you figure it out." She said, handing it to Les.

When she finally looked up from her game, after she handed it over, she noticed that David, Dutchy, and Amanda were still going at it with the pillows.

Giggling behind her hand, Katie nudged Bumlets in the arm, "Lets get 'em! You grab a pillow, and I'll take this one… then we'll ambush 'em!" Katie took the pillow and started toward the fray, with Bumlets close behind.

"BONZAI!!!!" Katie yelled as she attacked David furiously. Bumlets took Dutchy, and Amanda attacked him. 

"Hey! Only I can attack Dutchy!" Amanda yelled.

"Help!" Bumlets cried as Dutchy and Amanda teamed up on him. 

Katie tried to attack David with the pillow with one hand, while trying to tickle Amanda with the other, but the only thing she succeeded in doing was getting herself smacked from all sides by Amanda, David, and Dutchy.

"HEY! NOF  'AIR!" Katie protested in between blows.

Bumlets looked up to see Jack and Kid Blink standing in the doorway. 

He broke away from the group, and walked over to them.

On his way over, he grabbed a couple of pillows from bunks he passed, and tossed them to Jack and Blink. "This is a war zone, you need to be armed." He informed them.

Shrugging their shoulders, Jack and Blink looked at each other before charging into the middle, and taking up the defense of Katie with Bumlets.

"The teams are uneven, that's not fair!" David said with a laugh, as he hit Blink over the head.

The fight continued for a few more minutes until it was interrupted by a shout 

"What's going on?" Snitch almost yelled to be heard.

Everyone froze, most of them holding their pillows in the air above someone's head.

"We get Snitch!" Amanda called out, hurrying over to him, and handing him a pillow from the closest bunk. "You, me, Dutchy, and Davey are on one team, the other team is Jack, Blink, Katie, and Bumlets." She explained as she pulled him over to the group. 

"Ready?" David asked Snitch.

"I guess so." He answered.

"GO!" David announced, and the fight began again.

As reluctant as Snitch was to join in, he turned out to be a really good pillow fighter. His reflexes were quick, and his aim was good too. He was also the last one standing, after everyone else collapsed onto the floor.

Jack grinned in contentment. ~Those girls aint that annoying, I guess. ~ He admitted to himself. 


	4. Swimmin in Brooklyn

A/N I, the wondiferous author, have decided to change something that used to be inconsequential. The role of Marium, technically non-existent camping buddy,  has been re-cast as Kennyon, real person, and fellow newsie freak. So keep in mind, when we talk about Kennyon, that means the person we were supposed to meet outside the teriyaki restaurant, and the reason we tried to go there in the first place, she was hungry. Kennyon, not Marium, ok, got it now?

On to the madness!

"Amanda." Katie said, poking her sleeping friend in the shoulder.   
"Heh?" Amanda asked groggily.   
"Amanda, you need to get up and crawl into bed. You fell asleep laying across Snipeshooter's bed, and he needs to get to sleep."   
Opening one eye, Amanda looked up at Katie and asked again, "heh?"   
"Ya gotta move, Spaz!"   
Groaning, Amanda rolled over, fell off of the bed, and rolled into a ball, falling back asleep.   
"Tsk, Tsk, Tsk. Amanda, I am warning you. You need to get up." Katie threatened.   
Amanda responded by breathing evenly, and… not responding.   
Shaking her head, Katie reached down, and grabbed Amanda's foot, and pulled, sliding her sleeping form across the floor.   
"Umm, Katie, what are you doing that for?" Dutchy asked her.   
"If she sleeps on the floor, she will wake up really sore tomorrow, and won't be able to move." Katie explained.   
"Oh. Well, you're a nice friend." Dutchy told her.   
"No, I have ulterior motives… I don't want to hear her complaining tomorrow." She said, grunting as she dragged Amanda across the floor.   
"Oh. Do we need to lift her onto the bed?" Dutchy asked, scratching his head.   
"Not sure yet." Katie told him. "Amanda, wake up, and crawl into bed." She instructed, nudging her with her toe. Looking up at Dutchy, she instructed, "I'll take her feet, they're lighter!"   
Shrugging, Dutchy leaned down and grabbed Amanda by her shoulders, and Katie grabbed her feet.   
"One… two… three…" Katie counted out.   
They both straightened up, lifting her off of the floor, and swung her onto the bed.   
She didn't even move.   
"Wow, that's a hard sleeper." Dutchy commented.   
  
~~~   
  
Amanda lay on her stomach, clutching her stuffed frog under her chin. She snuggled deeper into her blankets in her sleep. She looked so peaceful with a sleeping half smile on her face, like she was having a pleasant dream.   
Katie stood next to the bed, looking down on her, grinning, before she sat on her.   
Amanda's eyes snapped open, and she jumped, with a start.   
"What do you think you are doing?" Amanda hissed groggily.   
"Waking you up." Katie stated.   
"Yeah, but why?" Amanda asked.   
Shrugging, she stood up. "I was awake, and I wanted you to be awake too!" She chirped.   
Groaning, Amanda turned over onto her stomach and buried her head in the pillow, mumbling incoherently.   
"What?" Katie asked.   
"Leave me alone!" Amanda said, non too seriously.   
Grinning, Katie poked Amanda in the shoulder, "Wake up, we gotta talk."   
Amanda shot her a venomous look, and asked, "What for? I wanna sleep!"   
Exasperated, Katie explained, "We gotta talk about stuff before they wake up." She explained, motioning around the room.   
"Alright, give me a few minutes to get dressed, and I'll meet you out on the fire escape." Amanda said, slowly sitting up and rubbing her eyes.   
  
~~~   
  
"This better be good." Amanda threatened Katie as she crawled up the last step up to the roof, stretched, and collapsed into a sitting position. "It's really early still, and it's already really hot out!" She said, shifting to get into a more comfortable position.   
"What are we gonna do?" Katie asked her. She was sitting cross legged on the roof, leaning her elbows on her knees, her brows furrowed in thought.   
"We are gonna go back downstairs, and crawl into our sleeping bags, and go to sleep." Amanda smiled before dropping her face into her arms, and rubbing her eyes.   
Snickering, Katie answered, "No, I mean, we can't stay here forever without telling them that we're not just from around here, we're not from this century!"   
"If only I'd actually paid more attention to history class, we could make a fortune from betting on current events!" Amanda grinned.   
Groaning, Katie told her, "I'm serious, we need to tell them, and maybe they can figure out how to get us home."   
"Well," Amanda started, thinking deeply. "If the conversation comes up, we can let them know, and see how much they freak out."   
"That sounds pretty good to me." Katie agreed.   
"I wonder if Kennyon is waiting for us outside the restaurant?" Amanda thought aloud.   
Drifting out the window, and up the stairs, was the sound of Kloppman yelling at them all to wake up.   
"We better go get ready, since we happen to have free papes to sell." Amanda told Katie.   
"That was soooo cool!" Katie commented, getting up, and starting down the stairs.   
Climbing back into the window, they were hit with a slight heat wave.   
"Ugh! Is it always this stuffy in here in the mornings?" Amanda asked the room.   
"No, it's gonna be a scorcher, I can already tell. And that means no one will be outside in the hot sun." Jack said, as he slammed his fist into his pillow in frustration.   
"Calm down, Jackie-boy, we'll do alright., there'll be lotsa families in the park that will want papes today. Blink reassured him.   
They all went about their business, fixing their hair, and tying their shoes, until everybody was walking out the door, and onto the street.   
They got about halfway to the distribution center, when they spotted a group of Nuns, already sitting in the shade, fanning themselves.   
"These black horrid things are so very hot in the summer!" They overheard one of them say to the others.   
"G'mornin' sisters!" Racetrack called out to them.   
They stood, and rushed over to their table, "Oh, you blessed dears, here, have some nourishment. You really need to stay out of the heat today, there's no good in getting sick." One of them said, as she passed out pieces of still warm bread, and cups with water in them.   
"You aren't planning on standing out in this sun all day, are you darling?" A tall skinny nun asked Mush.   
"I was thinking of goin to Brooklyn to swim, if it got too hot, so I'll be all right, Ma'am." Mush reassured.   
"Lord have mercy, it's already too hot to be standing out here, you best be on your way there already, and that goes for all of you, go cool off in the water."   
"We can't do that, most of us only get to eat after we make enough money for our food for the day" Snoddy replied.   
"The good Lord knows I certainly can't handle the heat of the sun, why don't we just give each of you some lunch to carry with you, and maybe some supper for tonight, and we can be off serving the Lord in the shade, instead of standing here, getting heatstroke in the sun."   
"Sister Josaphine! How dare you suggest such a thing?" a small, wrinkled nun asked.   
"My dear, do you remember how sick you got in '93 when we had that scorcher of a day?"   
The little old nun paled just thinking about it. Then she started separating their food between the newsies.   
  
~~~   
  
A few minutes later, they were on their way, with enough food for the day, and strict instructions to stay cooled off. About half of their group decided to go swimming, including Itey, Jack, Blink, Mush, Dutchy, Racetrack, Snoddy, Bumlets, Snitch, Specs, Katie, and Amanda   
  
"So where are we going?" Amanda asked the group.   
Jack half turned, and said over his shoulder, "Brooklyn, dey's got da best swimming place. An' I gots some business wid their leader."   
"Jack?" Blink said quietly so no one would hear "How do you think Spot will take dat?" he asked, motioning to the two girls walking behind them.   
"I think he'll be ok, he don't ever do nothing to girls, so we aint got nothing to worry about." Jack told him.   
  
"Ohhh, is that the Brooklyn bridge?" Katie asked excitedly, pointing into the distance.   
"Um, yeah, how else do you think we'd get to Brooklyn?" Mush asked her.   
  
Before they had even gotten to the bridge, Katie's feet were dragging, and she was complaining, "I'm tired, we should stop and rest!" She suggested.   
With a sigh, Amanda told her, "You can have a piggy back ride if you want, but not for the whole way, or anything."   
"Yay!" Katie bubbled, as she put her hands on Amanda's shoulders and hoisted herself up onto her back.   
Grinning, Mush looked over at Itey, who was the closest one standing next to him, and motioned for Itey to jump on his back.   
Then with Itey perched on his back, he ran forward, and yelled to the girls, "I'm gonna beat you!" as he ran past them.   
"No you're not!" Amanda challenged back, as she took off running after him.   
Laughing, Racetrack jumped on Blinks back, and yelled "Giddy up!" and they charged after the others that already ran ahead after picking partners, and racing off into the distance.   
Jack just stood there, until Snitch clapped him on the shoulder, and said "We're the last two, and they're gonna beat us."   
Shaking his head, Jack said, "Alright, hop on." And as soon as he was on Jack's back, he sped off, trying to overtake the last ones, at least.   
  
Mush and Itey were declared the winners, since they got to the bridge first. Most everyone just collapsed when they got there, in a heap of laughing bodies.   
  
"Now I'm too hot to move!" Specs declared, taking his bowler hat off and using it to fan himself.   
Racetrack stood up, and brushed himself off, "I don't know about you, but I can almost hear that cool water callin' my name" He said, as he stepped onto the bridge, and started walking.   
Everyone else followed his lead, after remembering their goal, they stood, and followed him out over the water on the bridge.   
When they had gotten about halfway across the bridge, Amanda and Katie looked at each other and grinned. Running over to the side of the bridge, they leaned over, and screamed off of the side.   
"I've always wanted to do that!" Amanda told the guys, when they laughed at them.   
"Me too!" Katie agreed, nodding her head furiously.   
  
~~~   
  
Spot sat on the dock, repairing his slingshot. It finally gave out, after he used it to club a punk across the face, for trying to pick a fight with him. The idiot's hard head cracked the wood. Upon hearing voices, he looked up from his work. ~I knew Jacky'd be over here today, when it's hot like this, Brooklyn gets real popular with 'hattan newsies.~   
When he stood up to call out a greeting to them, he caught sight of two newsies that he had never seen before… at least he didn't think so. The group was still a ways away, but they didn't look anything like any 'hattan newsies he knew.   
"Hiya Jacky-Boy!" he greeted. "How's it rollin?"   
"Hey Spot. It's too hot to be rollin" Jack told him.   
"What have we here?" Spot asked him, motioning to the two girls.   
"Oh, dey's new to the area, joined us two days ago. Da' shorter one's Katie, and the one in the chains is Amanda" Jack said as he pointed to them.   
With a nod of his head, Spot said "Spot Conlon." As he wordlessly challenged them with his eyes, he reached his hand up, spit in it, and held it out to Katie, who was closest.   
"Don't bother spitshaking wid da little one, she's squeamish." Bumlets told Spot as Katie scrunched up her face.   
Rolling his eyes, Spot pulled back his hand, but before he wiped his hand on his pants, Amanda stepped out from the crowd, spit in her own hand, and held it out to him, grinning.   
His face broke into a smirk as he grasped her hand, and tried to crush it in a handshake. His plans didn't work too well though, since she squeezed back, and with a pretty good grip… ~for a girl~ he admitted to himself.   
"Hiyo!" Katie bubbled at Spot.   
"What's that supposed to mean?" Spot said haughtily.   
"Think about it Spotty boy." Amanda giggled at him.   
"Look you little snit, no one calls Spot Conlon 'Spotty boy' without payin for it." He informed her.   
"Now look who's name callin. I'm just trying to be friendly; I didn't think you would take such offence to a nickname, since you obviously have to live with being called Spot. I really don't see by looking at you why the whole city is afraid of you." She shrugged at him.   
Each one of the manhatten newsies raised their eyebrows in surprise, and a few of them even dropped their jaws.   
"What's that supposed to mean, girl?" Spot questioned.   
"First of all, even I'm taller than you are, and I'm a girl." She said straightening her shoulders, and sizing him up.. "You walk with a cane." She motioned to his walking stick. "And, you're named after the family dog." She stopped for a moment to let that all sink in, before she said her last reason, knowing it would make him mad.   
"And those are lovely pink suspenders."   
"Red!" he interrupted. "Dey's faded." He said, scowling at her.   
Suddenly, she burst out laughing. "I'm sorry, really I am, I just couldn't resist." She said between breaths.   
"Why I outta…" he threatened, shaking his fist at her. "If I knew for sure dat you could swim, I would toss ya in!"   
Smiling at him, and slipped her sandals off, and unhooked her necklaces, and pulled her bracelets off and put them into her shoe, before winking at him, and diving into the water.   
Before she even got to the surface, everyone on the dock had run over to make sure she didn't drown.   
"She can swim, don't worry about it." Katie told them.   
"Can you swim?" Bumlets asked her.   
"I can keep myself afloat, but I'm not that strong of a swimmer." Katie shrugged.   
"So if we threw you in….." he started   
"I would be very upset." She said determinedly.   
"Is anyone else gonna swim?" Amanda asked them from the water, before she splashed them all.   
"Oh, that's it, I'm gonna get you!" Blink threatened as he unlaced his shoes, and kicked them off. He jumped into the water, and started swimming towards Amanda.   
She giggled, and dunked under the water, and disappeared. When he got to the spot where she had disappeared, he looked around, trying to find her. Then he disappeared underwater, and she surfaced, trying to hold him down.   
He came up sputtering, and after he spit the water out of his mouth, he threatened, "You pulled me under! What a dirty trick!" he told her as he grabbed her by the shoulders, and shoved her down under the water with laugh.   
By this time, all of the others had gotten into the water, and a full-fledged war had started.   
"Help!" Amanda said as she was laughing so hard that she couldn't catch her breath, and Blink was merciless, shoving her under over and over.   
Mush grabbed her, and pulled her up so she could catch her breath, "Are you ok now?" he asked her, still holding onto her arms.   
She said "Yeah, thanks." But before she got the thanks out of her mouth, he dunked her under the water himself.   
She came back up to the surface in time to see Blink clapping Mush on the shoulder in praise.   
They both lunged at her, but before they could shove her under, she took a deep breath, dove, and swam under their feet, towards the dock. Opening her eyes underwater, she swam over to a single form holding onto the dock. She slowly surfaced, and whispered to who just happened to be Dutchy, "Hide me." She said with a giggle.   
He moved out from the dock a little, and she ducked down and looked over his shoulder over at Blink and Mush, who were swimming in circles, trying to find her.   
"We lost her!" Blink exclaimed.   
"She's gone!" Mush said, frantically trying to feel around under the water.   
Dutchy whispered something over his shoulder to Amanda, who was trying to suppress her laughter.   
They both ducked underwater, and swam towards Blink and Mush, trying to avoid getting kicked, and they pulled them both underwater at the same time.   
  
Jack crawled out of the water, and onto the dock, and sat down next to Spot, who was almost dry from sitting in the sun after he swam.   
"Look at 'dem, dey's both got all of Brooklyn already wrapped around dere little fingers!" Spot said, shaking his head at Amanda and Katie.   
"I know dat, dey did da same for all of 'hatten too." Jack admitted with a shake of his head.   
"Where's dey come from?" Spot asked.   
"All I knows is dat dey's runaways from a pretty odd town" Jack said, looking out over the water where Brooklyn and manhatten were mingling together. "That one would be easier to deal with if you could understand what she was sayin, but she talks in a different language half of da time." He pointed to Katie, who was trying to get Itey to float on his back without sinking.   
"That one is … just… weird." Spot said, motioning towards where Amanda was getting dunked again. "What's all da chains for, is she a fighter?" Spot asked.   
"She told me she's nevah been in a fight, evah, but she punches pretty hard… I mean, for a girl." Jack said, rubbing his arm where there was still a bruise from where Amanda punched him.   
"She's fast enough that she got you?" Spot asked, amazed.   
"Nah, I let her, you can ask her, even." Jack promised   
"She's... weird. She acts just like a 'lil kid, ya know?" Spot commented.   
"I noticed dat." Jack nodded in agreement. "It's like she thinks of life as some sorta game..."   
"Hey!" Katie growled at them.   
Both of the buys jumped, neither of them had noticed her get out of the water, or walk over to them.   
"I heard that!" She accused them, her eyes narrowed, and her normally happy-go-lucky expresion was changed to what some her friends have termed the 'look-of-death'.   
Both Jack and Spot instinctively stood, and backed up. Jack was amazed, this was not at all like the Katie he had spent quite a bit of time with in the last few days. She was furious.   
"I happen to find her attitude much more to my liking than your 'high-and-mighty' attitude!" she yelled at them. "I'm glad she acts like a child, its better than people who grow up too fast, children know how to have fun!"   
They looked at each other, and gulped. This was not something they had ever seen, a girl sticking up for herself, or anyone else in front of them   
"You think your position as the toughest newsie in New York, makes you better than us?" She glowered at Spot.   
She turned her death-glare to Jack, who looked terrified that she was going to pounce on him, or something. "And do you, Mr Cowboy, think your charm and great newspaper selling skills makes you better than us?" Katie put her hands on her hips, and shook her head at them "If you think our antics are childish and stupid, then I'm glad I'm not you. I'm having the time of my life! And do you want to know why? Because I don't care what idiots like you think of me!"   
Both of them had slowly edged back bore and more, since she started her rant, and suddenly they both reached the edge, and started tottering at the same time. It was actually quite comical to watch them both grab onto each other, trying to pull themselves back up, and fall, as if in slow motion.   
They hit the water with a splash a moment later, and resurfaced, coughing and sputtering to hear everyone else applauding. They didn't have time to yell at anyone though, before they were both bombarded and dunked at the same time from behind.


End file.
